


Time Loop

by Starwinder042653



Series: Bingo Fics [6]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV), The Magnificent Seven ATF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-21 19:13:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17648354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starwinder042653/pseuds/Starwinder042653
Summary: ATF Ezra takes a little trip to the Old West and has a little chat with a certain gambler.





	Time Loop

**Author's Note:**

> When ATF Ezra and Old West Ezra are together in the same scene, I refer to ATF Ezra as "Ezra" and Old West Ezra as "The Gambler". In other scenes you should be able to figure out which "Ezra" I'm referring to by who they are talking to and where they are.

Written for Mag7Bingo, prompt used: Hey, you’re… me – meeting AU counterparts. 

For anyone that remembers this from the original posting at Mag7Bingo, I did some editing.

**********************************

He woke up when he hit the ground, the hard ground, the hard, dusty ground. Somewhere where it was hot and bright and had he mentioned dusty?

He lay there for a long moment squinting up at the sky, the brightly lit, near-midday sky. 

The sky was cloudless. The sun was brilliant, almost blindingly so.

After another moment of studying the too bright, too hot sun he groaned and rolled over, pushing up onto his hands and knees then getting to his feet.

He looked down at himself, at least he was properly dressed, well mostly. He had taken off his suit coat when he had gotten home. Fortunately he hadn't taken his shoes off when he lay down on the couch, just propped his feet up on the arm. He'd hate to be stranded in the middle of what appeared to be the freaking desert barefoot.

He turned around slowly, taking in the place where he had landed, as he brushed at his clothes trying to get some of the dust off.

He appeared to be in the middle of a dirt road. He stood staring down the road in the direction that he was facing for a long moment then turned and looked in the opposite direction.

He could see what appeared to be the tops of houses, down in what was most likely a hollow.

Okay, that was the direction to go. He started walking, his feet kicking up dust as he walked along.

He looked along the side of the road, no power lines, no telephone lines, no sign of a cell phone tower. Good Lord! Where had he landed and just how the hell had he gotten here?

The last thing that he remembered he had been laying down on the couch in his living room, while Vin puttered around in the kitchen, fixing their supper.

**********************************

Meanwhile back where Ezra came from

**********************************

Vin Tanner hummed to himself as he plated the dinner he had fixed for himself and his lover. Grabbing the plates up, he headed for the living room. 

He set the plates down on the coffee table and stood for a moment looking down at his lover, a small smile curving his lips.

Ez was looking better, still obviously worn from the last long stint undercover, but looking better every day that he was back.

Just as he was turning away to go get the iced tea to go with their meal, he caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye and turned back to Ezra only to see him literally vanish in front of his eyes.

A shocked howl escaped him. He flung himself down on his knees next to the couch frantically running his hands over the soft leather. It was still warm from Ezra's body, and the imprint from where Ezra had been lying was smoothing out even as he watched.

No! NO, no, no! This couldn't be happening!

**********************************

Ezra glanced at his watch. He'd been walking for about twenty minutes. Although his watch said that it was seven thirty-two PM, the position of the sun was closer to shortly after high noon. 

His dismay increased when he saw the town he was walking into. The streets where lined with horses tied to hitching rails. Men, women and children dressed in what appeared to be authentic old west garb went about their business for the most part ignoring him. The buildings were all clapboard, mostly unpainted. Signs hung in front of some of them. Others had signs painted on the windows.

He saw a bank, several hotels and at least two saloons. He walked down the street, only his training both as an undercover agent and Maude Standish's son keeping him from gaping at his surroundings.

There was no way that this was a reconstruction. There would have been tourists with cameras, people other than the re-constructionists walking around taking it all in. No, this was all too real.

He came to one saloon, frowning at the loud boisterous noise from within. He moved on. He crossed an alley and came to another saloon. He paused at the door and looked inside. This one was much quieter than the other one.

He glanced at the sign painted on the window. 'The Standish Tavern'. Huh. Well that was a sign if he'd ever seen one. Pun intended. He pushed his way inside and stood a moment letting his eyes adjust to the dimmer light.

When his eyes had adjusted he looked around and couldn't help a small gasp escaping him.

JD was leaning on the bar!

A scruffy JD with more facial hair than he had ever seen on his co-worker and dressed in an old fashion wool suit complete with a bowler hat, but still: JD.

Then he noted the barmaid. Inez! She was dressed in a peasant blouse and a long skirt that swished around her as she moved among the customers delivering beers and trays of food.

JD turned from the bar to see who had come in and grinned at him, "Hey, Ez!" he greeted familiarly, then did a comic double-take and spun around to look towards the back table that occupied the raised platform.

Ezra followed his line of sight and almost let his mouth drop open in shock. A man who looked exactly like him was sitting at the table wearing a red jacket and shuffling a deck of cards and at his side smiling indulgently was a man wearing a hide coat and a cavalry hat, a man with the same brilliant blue eyes and familiar features as his own beloved Vin Tanner. 

Suddenly, he knew exactly where he was and who it was sitting at the table.

"Mister Dunne, are you joining us?" the Ezra at the table asked, without looking up.

JD swung back around and gaped at the newcomer before turning back to the Ezra at the table, "Hey Ez," he called raising his voice to carry back to the table, "how come you never told us you had a twin brother?"

The other Ezra's head shot up. "I--"

Ezra cut him off, "Never expected to see me here." He held the other Ezra's gaze, willing him to go along with the ruse.

The gambler in the red coat stood up,"I can honestly say that." 

"Wow!" JD exclaimed, turning back to Ezra, "so what's your name?"

"Ethan Allen Standish, at your service," he gave the name of his ancestor's half-brother, knowing that Ezra would recognize it. "But perhaps we could talk another time. I really need to talk to my brother. In private."

"Yes, I think that would be best. My room is upstairs," the gambler gestured to the nearby steps.

Vin cast a worried glance between them but the gambler in the red coat didn't respond.

When he turned the questioning look on Ezra, Ezra gave a small nod and saw Vin's eyes widen in surprise. Vin rose from the table and headed for the front door.

Ezra walked ahead of the red-coated gambler up the stairs, stepping to the side and waiting for him to lead him to the proper door.

The door was barely closed before the gambler turned on him. "You are not Ethan!" he snarled.

"No, I'm not. I'm your great, great nephew's grandson."

That announcement stopped the gambler cold with his mouth hanging open. "That is not possible!"

"Indeed. I have no idea how I am here."

There was a soft knock on the door, "Ez?" 

Vin's voice was raspier in this time period, perhaps a result of the infernal, endless dust.

The gambler turned towards the door clearly wanting to open it but uncertain if he should.

"Let him in," Ezra ordered. "You won't be able to do what you need to do without him knowing."

The gambler frowned at him. 

He sighed then smiled softly. "There's a Vin Tanner in my world as well and he is also a very important part of my life."

The gambler hesitated a moment longer then turned and opened the door.

Vin slipped into the room on silent feet. Some things apparently didn't change. That Vin Tanner moved like a ghost was one of them.

He faced Ezra immediately, challengingly, "So, you're Ez's brother."

"Not exactly."

"He claims to be from the future."

"I believe that I can prove that claim." He raised a hand to his shirt pocket, "If I may?"

"Go ahead." It was Vin that answered him.

He slowly took his cell phone from his pocket and looked at it. There was not, of course, any service but the battery was still active and that meant that his screen was lit up and showed the date and time. He stared at it a moment. It still said July 10, 2017, seven-fifty-five PM.

"This device will not be invented for more than a hundred years. It would take too long to explain what it does other than what is currently showing on the screen. It is self-contained. You can hold it and examine it. The date and time are accurate for when I left where I was."

He handed it to Vin, who stared at it in dismay before handing it to the gambler. "It's shining. There's a light inside. It's a mite warm, but it ain't hot."

The gambler took it and turned it over in his hand. "What else does it do?" he demanded, obviously curious.

"Several things, the most important of which it can't do in this time period because the support structure that it needs doesn't exist yet. However, if I may?"

He stepped closer to the two men and plucked the phone from the gambler's hand. Brushing a finger across it to change the screen view he showed them the text message screen.

The gambler's eyes went wide as the letters that Ezra typed with the keyboard that had popped up on the screen appeared in the message box.

"I can't actually send a text message since as I said there is no support structure," he explained as he saved the text as a draft.

"What do you mean by a support structure?" the gambler asked.

Ezra hesitated, then nodded, remembering from the journals he had read so long ago that this ancestor knew and could use Morse Code. "Think of this as a telegraph key. The support structure would be the telegraph lines. Without the support structure, this is like a telegraph key that is not connected to a line. I can create text messages until my battery, the part that supplies the energy for the light and other functions, gives out but they'll stay right here on the device. Just as you can tap the telegraph key all day but if it isn't connected to the wire, the message isn't going any where."

"Yer lines are down," Vin said with a nod, clearly grasping the concept. 

The gambler nodded absently still staring at the screen.

"All right say we accept that you really are from the future, what are you doing here?" 

Ezra grimaced at the gambler's question. "I'm not entirely sure. Something similar to this has happened to me twice before but it wasn't exactly like this. Both of those times I was lying comatose in the hospital and my consciousness sidestepped into another reality. The difference is that on those occasions I woke up *inside* the Ezra that belonged in that reality. I suppose his consciousness traded places with mine and he spent the time that I was in his reality in my reality."

He noted the confused looks on the two men's faces, "I know. It gives me a headache just thinking about it, let alone trying to explain it to someone who has never sidestepped. And that isn't even what happened here. This is just as new to me as it is to you."

He paused and began to pace. "I was not in the hospital. I was asleep on the couch in my living room then I was rudely awakened by landing flat of my back in the dirt outside your quaint little town. Also, you are here," he gestured at the gambler, "and I am here." He swept a hand to indicate himself. "That has never happened before. Therefore, I have somehow and believe me, I have no idea how, been transported into the past. If I am correct this is a time loop. Which means that what happens in your future is dependent on what happens here in our joint past and what happens in my past depends on what you do in your future. If you don't do what I tell you to do then I won't know what I need to know to tell you to do what you need to do."

"Why should I do what you tell me?"

"Because it will make you very, very rich."

That definitely got the gambler's attention. "This is a con."

"No it's not."

"Maybe you'd better start at the beginning," Vin put in.

"The problem with starting at the beginning in this situation, Mister Tanner, is that it is hard to be sure where the beginning is."

Vin scowled at him suddenly, his hand dropping to his gun, "I never told you my name."

"As I told, your Ezra, I have a Vin Tanner in my life as well and while you don't look exactly like him, the resemblance is uncanny."

"Perhaps, if you started with where this started for you," the gambler suggested, laying a hand on Vin's arm to calm him.

Ezra was pleased to see that Vin relaxed.

"It's a long story," he said, "could we sit down?"

"Of course, how rude of me not offer you a seat. Where would you like to sit?" the gambler asked.

Ezra looked around the room, spotting the rocking chair. If he took it and they sat on the bed, then they would be between him and the door. That might make them a bit more comfortable. "I'll take the rocking chair and the two of you can sit on the bed?"

They nodded and as soon as they were settled, the gambler gave a 'go ahead' gesture.

Ezra hesitated then nodded, "In the year two-thousand-seventeen, the Standish home place in Virginia is a historical landmark. It has the distinction of being the longest continually inhabited, privately owned estate in America. There are other old estates around but none of them have been continually inhabited for all that time and none of them have been owned by the same family for all that time. We owe that distinction to you.

"Your half-brother, Ethan Allen Standish, went bankrupt. He was going to have to sell the estate to pay his debts. You bailed him out. You set up a trust fund to keep the estate solvent. The family is allowed the use of the interest, and only the interest to pay every necessary expense of the estate, taxes, maintenance, even salary for the many people needed to keep it running. They cannot sell the estate or any part of it and a member of the family must live in the main house at all times. To set this up required an incredible amount of money. You got that money through investing in some of the most important inventions of the late nineteen-century and the early twentieth century. No one knew how you knew to invest in companies that produced those inventions, until I read your journals.

"Your journals are at the ancestral home, in the family library, but no one had read them until I did. The summer that I turned ten, I broke both my ankles, doing something stupid to win a bet." He grinned at the memory.

In that grin Vin could see his Ezra and impulsively asked, "What'd'ya do?"

"Jumped off the carriage house roof." He laughed softly, "It was lucky that I did or I'd not be here now. Having to spend eight weeks with both legs in casts from the arch of the foot to halfway up my legs is what led to my reading the journals. Even with crutches getting around was difficult. Most days, I'd settle in the library, have someone hand me down a couple of journals and sit and read most of the day."

"What did you find in the journals?"

"If you'll hand me you current journal, open to the next blank page, I'll show you."

The gambler frowned but got up and got the journal, handing it to Ezra.

Ezra reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a ballpoint pen. Using it he wrote at the top of the page, 'August 21, 1875.'

He turned the book towards the gambler. "That is today's date, is it not?"

"Yes," the gambler nodded slowly. 

Ezra turned the book back and wrote several more lines before handing it back to the gambler.

"Read it out loud."

The gambler hesitated then began to read, "In the next thirty years: Henry Ford, The Ford Motor Company, the horseless carriage. Thomas Edison, The General Electric Company, electric lights. Alexander Graham Bell, The Bell Telephone Company, the telephone. Wilbur and Orville Wright, The Wright Company, airplanes. Sometime between 1970 and 1985, Bill Gates, Microsoft Corporation, Computer programs."

The gambler looked up at Ezra, "I really doubt that I'm going to live to see nineteen-seventy."

"No, but my grandfather did and he invested heavily in Microsoft. He made a fortune. His name was Ezra Patrick Standish. He was named for you and I was named for him. Leave him a letter or something to be opened in nineteen-seventy. The law firm that you chose to handle the trust fund for the estate would be a good choice."

"Do you have the name of this firm?"

"Certainly. I am after all the current Standish heir even if grandfather despairs of my ever returning to claim my birthright."

"Why's that?"

Ezra grinned, "I love my job."

"What do you do?"

"I'm a federal law enforcement officer. I do a lot of undercover work."

"Undercover work?"

"Think of me as a con artist that works for the law. Instead of conning honest people out of their money, I con criminals into giving me access to the evidence that I need to send them to prison."

"I see. Now, tell me what I have to do in exchange for this information," the gambler gestured to the page he'd just read. "I'd also like to know how you can be sure that this is what you saw in a journal that you read when you were ten years old."

"I have an eidetic memory. I remember everything that I read or hear. As for what you need to do, first you have to invest every penny, nickel and dime that you can get your hands on, in the companies that I've listed. Second you have to bail Ethan out of bankruptcy, even if you'd rather not. Third you have to set up the trust fund for the perpetual care of the ancestral home and ensure that it cannot be sold and that a member of the family must live on site at all times. Finally you have to manage to get your journals housed in the family library at the ancestral home in Virginia." 

The gambler snorted, "The first three should be a cake-walk compared to the last one. Ethan despises me. I am after all his father's bastard son and older than him. If I were not a bastard, I would be the first born and the heir and he just a second son. I'm not even sure that he'll let me bail him out."

"He doesn't believe you to start with, that's why he goes bankrupt. You go to see him, some time soon and tell him to invest in the companies I've listed. He ignores you and doesn't. You do invest and become extremely wealthy. When you return to bail him out he's rather more willing to listen."

"That doesn't sound like Ethan."

"It takes a long time, thirty years in fact, but, believe me, he will eventually listen."

"What do you get out of this?"

"I am the Standish heir. Grandfather may be the official head of the family but I am still responsible for the family. While I may not want to take over from grandfather right now, I've had a comfortable life and I don't want have to find out what my life would have been like if you hadn't made the investments that you did. What you did for the Standish family gave me choices that I'd rather not lose. When I first read your journals I didn't know that I was the one that came back and gave you the information you needed. I realized that when I got back here and saw you."

"What happens now?" Vin asked.

"I don't know. I'd like to go home. Perhaps…" Ezra looked at the bed they were sitting on. "I was asleep when I came here, perhaps if I were to go back to sleep…."

"Good a' idea as any, I reckon," Vin said. 

"Yes," the gambler added, "Please feel free to make use of the bed. We'll be downstairs if you need anything."

"An' if you don't come down after a while, we'll check on ya," Vin promised, sounding so much like "his" Vin that he felt his heart ache.

Ezra nodded, saying, "I sincerely hope that you have to come check, because I very much want to go home."

Ezra closed the door behind them then looked at the bed. God, he hoped this worked. He started to take his shoes off then stopped, as much as he hated to put his shoes on the bed, if he did go back home he didn't want to leave his shoes behind.

He lay down and tried to slow his breathing. It was sweltering. Lord! He wasn't used to this heat. Air conditioning, climate controlled buildings, central heat, lord, he was spoiled.

After a long few moments of tossing and turning he sighed and sat up. Patting his pockets he realized that he had the solar charger that JD had given him before he had left work that day with him. He looked over at the phone then got up and plugged the charger into the phone and started looking for paper to write on. Sitting at Ezra's desk he tried to think of everything that he could tell the gambler about the phone and how it worked. After a moment he began to write.

Almost an hour, and several pages of instructions, later he finally lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, silently praying to be returned to his Vin.

**********************************

Meanwhile back where Ezra came from

**********************************

Vin Tanner was frantic. He had no idea what to do. He was afraid that if he called anyone they'd think he was crazy. 

Ezra had just been there and then he was gone in the blink of an eye. Nothing else was missing, nothing but Ezra and the clothes that he was wearing.

Maybe he was crazy. This just wasn't possible.

Sidestepping wasn't possible either but he'd done it. So had JD. Maybe JD would believe him. He reached for the phone.

"Dammit!" 

Vin spun around at the sound of Ezra's voice.

"I was snatched off the couch! Why couldn't I land back on the damn couch?"

"Ezra!" Vin dropped the phone and fell to his knees beside his lover, "are you all right?"

"Vin! Thank god!"

"I was afraid I'd never see you again!" They both blurted at the same time as Vin wrapped his arms around Ezra and Ezra threw his arms around Vin.

"I'm never letting you go!" They both vowed.

After a long moment of just hanging on to each other for all they were worth, Vin drew back. "Don't you ever do that again. You near to scared me to death."

"I shall certainly endeavor not to," Ezra replied, knowing full well that since he had no idea how he had vanished in the first place that he couldn't actually promise anything. 

But Vin knew that. He'd always known that there were no guarantees in life.

All they could do was hang on to each other and hope for the best.

**********************************

Four Corners August 21, 1875

**********************************

Ezra Standish pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time. Vin had left the game after the last hand before this one. He would have circled around and gone up the outside stairs to check on their guest.

Ezra decided that he would finish this hand and go up, too. JD hadn't stopped asking questions about his 'brother' since they'd come back downstairs that afternoon.

Half-an-hour later he climbed the stairs to his room. Looking up and down the hall to be sure that there was no one around to wonder why he was knocking on his own door, he tapped lightly on the door panel.

Vin opened the door immediately, standing aside so that Ezra could see the bed clearly as he entered the room.

"He's gone when I got up here," Vin said softly.

"If he was ever here at all. This is all very strange."

"May be, but he left that behind." Vin pointed to the table beside the window where the small device that the other Ezra had shown them lay, only now it was attached to something else and several sheets of Ezra's stationary lay beside it.

Ezra picked up the papers and began to read. Apparently the device that the first device was now attached to was a solar charger that converted sunlight (they certainly had plenty of that) into the energy that the device need to keep working. Clear instructions for its use were included, complete with diagrams.

The other pages included instructions for using some of the programs that would work without needing the support system that the other Ezra had mentioned. All were very clear and Ezra was certain that he would have no problem learning to use them. He skimmed past the instructions for the games, he had his cards after all, and focused on the 'notebook' and the 'camera' function that the other Ezra had included precise instructions for.

Ezra lay the instructions aside and picked up the phone, brushing a finger across the screen the way that the other Ezra had done to change what it showed.

Yes, there was the charging icon and the little number beside it. It read seventy-five percent but even as he watched it, it changed to seventy-six percent.

"Reckon if ya put that in with the letter yer supposed ta write his granddaddy, he'd be a mite more apt ta believe you," Vin said.

"You believe that I should…." Ezra trailed off and gestured vaguely around the room.

"What've we got to lose? Which ever one a' those things ya hear of first, do like he said and invest in it. It pans out, put ever thing ya can in the next one and so on."

Ezra stared down at the glowing screen on the tiny device. Then he looked up at Vin, "Well, Mister Tanner, how would you like to be filthy, stinking rich."

"Rich or poor don't matter ta me, long as I'm with you."

Ezra slipped his arms around Vin, "Always, Mister Tanner, always." 

Ezra looked over at the small device charging in the afternoon sun. They would have to keep the device hidden, only take it out when they were alone but he was definitely going to see just how much he could learn about it... and from it.

The End


End file.
